I don’t often agree with the economic drivel spouted by the Labour party but they made a good point on Today programme. Mr Hester is paid to do a job so and handsomely at that to reflect the gravity of the job, so what’s the bonus for? Anyway I thought the trade-off was lower than market rate and you’ll get a gong for your efforts. Calling for him to forgo the bonus is too late as it won’t show grace and common sense rather weakness in the face of adversity. And here is the oxymoron – we’re paying a guy bucketloads of cash because he’s the best man for the job but he’s got no common sense. Just like the rest of the bankers – brains perhaps but not common sense.

I just read on BBC website that 90% of debt owed to London hospitals by foreigners for treatment is not collected. Hardly surprising. A few years ago my nephew broke his arm while visiting from a non-EU country and required treatment and an operation, at 2 separate hospitals. My brother told them that they were foreign and had insurance. Do you think anybody cared about payment? Not a peep. It wouldn’t happen in the private health sector – I can tell you that. In their home country I was rushed to hospital 2 years ago and asked for credit card payment in the ambulance! Time for real NHS reforms.

The hullaballoo over executive pay is all a veneer. It’s politics as usual. Everybody knows that there is a market rate for the job and if you can command a big salary good luck to you. Of course boardroom pay rises have far outstripped those for the flat cap wearing lumpenproletariat who push buttons and levers or work in call centres these days. That’s because it is a different market isn’t it? It’s apples and oranges. What people are really hacked off about is rewards in spite of failure. It smacks of snout in the trough syndrome – get what you can because nobody is willing to stop you. And that’s the point, it is about willingness not the ability to do so. But let’s look at an area where bonuses are paid for performance where there is no such thing as performance. Yup, you’ve guessed it – the public sector. The deal is that you work for donkeys years in the public sector and get a high pension and an OBE. So can somebody explain why NHS managers get bonuses, the prison service managers get bonuses. The list goes on and on and on. Company registration agents don’t get bonuses and it’s not fair!

It’s not the nostalgia about the Kodak demise that gets me. It’s the fact that they invented the technology that killed them off. Even worse, how can a whole board of directors be so blinkered as to steer straight towards the rocks for so long? Kodak serves up clear lessons for each and every business – nobody is immune from strategic errors. We’ll have to wait a few months for the book to come out. Some light reading to take my mind off company registration.

As the debate on paying the correct (whatever that means) amounts of corporation tax rages on, almost all pundits agree that the myriad allowances is what creates avoidance schemes and loopholes. After all, if there are no exceptions and exemptions then people cannot search for loopholes – or so the theory goes. So why does the UK not introduce flat rate corporation tax, say 15%, all across the board. I don’t say this simply because company registrations is my bread and butter and want to encourage more company formations. Presumably HMRC are concerned about it not working as per the text book. Failure to respond as per the insturction manual is a common problem. But, and here is my big idea, why not trial it for all new company registrations for a specific time, and see what happens. Or am I missing something here?

As my disposable tableware business expands I am enduring the role of meeting sales reps keen to flog me their wares. It is a difficult task for an impatient person like me who can’t stand meetings longer than 15 minutes. Fortunately I have a partner who has the patient of a saint. On Sunday he shlepped me to Harrogate to an xmas fair in the hope of meeting tableware suppliers. I have never seen so many xmas trees in mid-January. We met 2 potential suppliers at the xmas fair and they were Jewish !!! Must go – there’s a rep due now.